Comments on: Interview: Darryn Nowicki Electric Vehicle Director, Continental Automotive, Part I

By: o.jeff

o.jeff — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:08:27 +0000

Dear Mr. Nowicki,

Thank you for talking with Lyle and for all the information you provided. I believe the work you and your company is doing for the Volt is very important for the automotive industry and for the world. Never before has a car emerged that can both aid our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and improve our environment by reducing emissions of all kinds. Please be successful–we are counting on you!

By: Tagamet

Tagamet — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:02:09 +0000

The "one day at a time" countdown initially sounded like a good idea to me, but given the timespan involved and all the inherently unknown variables between now and the Big Day, I fear being to vulnerable to getting close and then hearing,"oops, put another 30 days BACK on the clock. That would really hurt (and given the scope of the project is pretty likely). Then again, maybe things will just fall right into place and we can dance in the streeets earlier than 2010.
In any case, the time will pass like it’s in Dog Years. (g)

By: Brian M

Brian M — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:32:56 +0000

Butters, #19:

The A/C loop is separate, and uses a refrigerant, not glycol. However, the gas engine coolant loop will surely be using a 50/50 mixture of water and ethylene glycol just like every other engine. I imagine that loop will cool the electronics and electric motor as well, but it may be too hot for the batteries (that loop can get up to 100 C or 212 F with the gas engine running on a hot day – I am not sure what the battery pack can handle).

By: Jeff J

Jeff J — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:55:47 +0000

#20 Rashiid Amul , I’m sorry but that honor belongs to me !!! Just stepping off the plane in Ky ,I lost 50 IQ points. LOL #13 Donan, great link ,thanks IMO cell phones bought the R&D money to the table that pushed Battery Tech in to the 21 century , you also can’t forget NASA and the money they poured into R&D , As nasaman can explain better then I , Nasa needs for a Battery on most levels doesn’t cross over to consumer market need, ie. Northrop Grumman doesn’t mind shelling out 10 million for a battery pack that will last 30 years and operate in space conditions. Happily some of the technology does trickle down . Times have changed and as Rashiid pointed out 1.2 billion autos is a huge reason to invest in the R&D in battery technology. One can only hope that the battery can follow other sectors that have seen huge gains. It seams that moneys have started to find there way in battery tech.

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:33:17 +0000

Rashiid,

Yes, and I would guess that there are more cell phones in the world than there are cars, but consumer electronics don’t evoke the passion that cars do. Can you imagine anyone being ecstatic about a doubling of Li-ion potency that would allow their cell batt to deliver 8 hours talk time instead of 4? You can recharge your cell anywhere and it sometimes only takes about 50 minutes, when it might just be sitting on a desk anyway. My guess is that the incentive to drive the technology just isn’t there.

I don’t believe this is the case with EVs, at least not in 2008 on. These are some exciting times coming and the drive for range hasn’t even hit the starting blocks.

By: Rashiid Amul

Rashiid Amul — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:12:27 +0000

Grizzly, I have been in the computer field since high school. That would be about 25 years. I am astounded at the speed of computer technology during that time. Looking back over the last 200 years, battery technology is a real disappointment. But I agree with you. Perhaps there just wasn’t any real reason to make it better, until now. The potential EV market is a huge market as there are approx 600 million cars in the world today and that number is expected to double in the next 30 years. If we were to assume that 10% of those cars were EV, then 60 million battery packs is a reason to improve the technology.

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:05:35 +0000

Battery technology certainly hasn’t progressed as anyone would have thought. Probably because in most applications what we’ve got is sufficient.

Now, with electric vehicles on the horizon again, and gas prices where they are I’ve got to believe that we’ll see some real battery breakthroughs in the near future. There are also a lot of players in this field, and more are sure to come out of the wood work.

By: Rashiid Amul

Rashiid Amul — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:50:42 +0000

#13 Donan:

That was a very interesting and educational article. Me, being the dumbest one here by far, had no idea that batteries are over 200 years old. I also though ni-cads were invented when I was a kid (1970s). Very educational indeed. Thank you for posting it.

-Rashiid

By: butters

butters — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:32:33 +0000

Question: We know that the battery pack is cooled by a recirculated chilled glycol solution, but is there a dedicated (reciprocating vapor compression) chiller for the battery pack loop, or is there a single chiller shared with the A/C loop?

It would be more efficient and elegant to have a unified chiller, but the common chilled liquid temperature may be a challenge. If the two loops can’t use the same supply temperature, then the loops could be put in series, with the colder loop first, then a variable volume waste-source reheat coil, and finally the warmer loop.

I also suggest routing the battery pack return lines through a simple radiant surface on the underside of the pack so that the liquid can be partially pre-cooled by the airflow rushing underneath the vehicle before returning to the active electric chiller.

By: noel park

noel park — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:46:39 +0000

#13 Donan:

Yeah, thanks. Really educatioal.